Twin Peaks (1990)

Set in a small Northwestern town, when the body of a popular high school student (Sheryl Lee) is found brutally murdered, the reaction among the town's citizens is swift and an FBI agent (Kyle MacLachlan) is called in to assist with the investigation. Directed by David Lynch (BLUE VELVET), the pilot for the cult TV series where the question of "Who killed Laura Palmer?" dominated season one was turned into a stand alone feature film for international distribution and this is what I watched. However, they had to come up with an ending and answer who killed Laura Palmer (the answer is different from the TV series). What they came up with is an unsatisfying deus ex machina that makes no sense from what we've just seen. But Lynch's unique vision is compelling until the last 20 minutes when the "alternate" ending causes the movie to jump the track. Lynch's narrative is a mixture of realism and surrealism with naturalistic acting and stylized acting and the mix can be quite heady at times. Some of the stylized acting appears to be "bad" (like Dana Ashbrook) but it's exactly what Lynch wanted in keeping with his topsy turvy vision. It's not a recognizable world but a parallel universe where they do things differently. The large cast includes Michael Ontkean, Piper Laurie, Richard Beymer, Ray Wise, Peggy Lipton, Joan Chen, James Marshall, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, Russ Tamblyn, Jack Nance, Everett McGill and in a sensational performance as the murdered girl's mother, Grace Zabriskie.